Our Board of Directors

Sallie moved to Bainbridge in 1978. Since then, she has worked with a number of community non-profits though she has a special interest in land conservation and environmental issues. A former small business owner, she enjoys finding opportuities for collaboration and community-building. Whether walking Island trails or holding meetings in local bakeries, she is grateful for all the people who make Bainbridge a caring and lively community.

Since moving to Bainbridge Island five years ago, Kate and her husband have transformed their home (called “Camp 4”) into a “sustainable living lab” where they experiment with different solutions to live more sustainably.  She shares their learnings with larger audiences via social media/websites and also writes for Family Circle magazine as their Sustainable Living Expert.  You may also see Kate delivering her duck and chicken eggs to Bainbridge Island retail stores and restaurants by bike.

When Kate is not working at Camp 4, she is managing her independent consulting firm, Flashpoint Strategy.  As owner and Chief Innovation Officer at Flashpoint Strategy, she assists food and beverage companies in bringing their innovative new ideas to market. Now a 15-year veteran of the Food and Beverage Industry, she understands what it takes to bring products from “farm to fork.”  Kate holds a B.S. degree in Agriculture and Life Sciences from University of Wisconsin – Madison and an M.B.A. from University of Chicago – Booth School of Business.  She serves on the Bainbridge Arts & Humanities Board, the Bainbridge Island Museum of Art Board and chairs the Public Art Committee.

Donna Larkin Mohr was born, raised, and educated in Southern California. When the opportunity presented itself, in 1972, to move further north, she was truly delighted and has always felt she belonged in the ever-green Pacific Northwest. As a child of a middle-class family, she did not want for much; but, when the holidays came around, she new it was not prudent to dream big because her parents provided gifts for several family members, including her two brothers. So, the beautiful green Schwinn bicycle she so longed for was, quite simply, not a possibility. However, thanks to a wonderfully generous grandmother, she got the green machine, which forever altered her life. She saw in that bicycle the ability to "fly" almost anywhere she wanted to go, with nothing but the expenditure of a little of her own energy. As the years passed, the green machine became her mental symbol for her love of the environment, mother-earth-Gaia-and all the magical flora and fauna surrounding her. -- A major segment of Donna's life was spent in the corporate world where her last position was as a Systems Development Director. She is a relative newcomer to Bainbridge, moving here from Montana in 1995. Donna is currently serving as President of the Interfaith Council of Bainbridge Island & North Kitsap.

Els moved to Bainbridge in 1984 from the Netherlands. She is an entrepreneur and wears many other hats. She is one of the founders of the bicycle shop "Classic Cycle" on Bainbridge Island which just celebrated its 25^th year. She and her husband Jeff sold the bikeshop in 2010. She graduated with a MBA in sustainability from the Bainbridge Graduate Institute in 2006. She served in 2007 on the board of the Community Housing Coalition, which developed recommendations for solutions to the local affordable housing crisis. She currently serves on the board of the Chamber of Commerce and is involved with Zero Waste, the Sustainable Business Network, WOW Bainbridge and Go Bainbridge. She currently works as the Marketing and Sustainability director at Bay Hay and Feed and she serves as staff for the non-profit One Call for All, which last year raised more than $850,000 for nonprofits in the Bainbridge and Kitsap communities.  

Since 1990, Liesl has traveled the globe writing, producing and directing many of the world’s most extreme filming expeditions for NOVA and National Geographic, including filming elephant behavior deep inside bat-infested caves on the Kenya-Uganda border, exploring the effects of high altitude on humans on Mount Everest, documenting the unearthing of a 500-year-old frozen Inca mummy on an 18,000 foot Andean peak, and discovering the body of George Leigh Mallory high on the North Face of Everest.

In 2001, Liesl and a team of world-class climbers, including Jon Krakauer and Conrad Anker, pioneered a new route to the highest point on the southernmost continent to study the rates of snow accumulation in Antarctica’s highest mountains. Her NOVA film about the expedition, which took her to a hostile land no humans have trod, won a Prime Time Emmy Award for Cinematography. Liesl was producer, series producer, director, and writer at NOVA for 7 years. Her films, which include footage she shoots at high altitude, have won the Columbia Dupont Gold Baton and awards in several film festivals around the world. She is now an independent filmmaker, working currently with National Geographic Television, directing and shooting a 5-year project uncovering 2000-year-old human mortuary populations found inside cliff caves in the remote Himalayan Kingdom of Mustang.

Cathie has more than 25 years of experience in non-profit leadership, fund development and community outreach.  She recently joined Puget Sound Energy as an Energy Efficient Communities Coordinator.  In this role, she works with local government entities, businesses and grassroots organizations like Positive Energy and RePower Bainbridge, encouraging uptake of new technologies and changes in behaviors to achieve specific goals in energy use reduction.  Previous jobs include: Communications Coordinator for the City of Bainbridge Island, Director of Development and External Relations for Pilchuck Glass School, and Executive Director of the Washington Wilderness Coalition.  Cathie is passionate about building community connections that create new possibilities and accomplish positive change.  She serves on the Board of the Rotary Club of Bainbridge Island, and volunteers for Positive Energy and the RePower Bainbridge project.  She holds degrees in English and History from Boston University, and studied art and design at Harvard Graduate School of Design, Pratt Fine Art Center and Pilchuck Glass School. 

Tony and his family moved to Bainbridge Island in 1998. He had been an executive chef in some of the nation’s top restaurants working for a number of celebrity chef-owners. Eventually he became a corporate chef for a large food service company, and later a college culinary instructor with specialties in French and Italian cuisine, pastries and artisan breads. He achieved the designation of Certified Executive Chef in 2003.

In 2008 Tony graduated with an MBA in sustainable business from Bainbridge Graduate Institute, which fostered a career change. After an internship at Holland America Line in the environmental management department, he moved to Town & Country Markets Inc. where he is now the sustainability director. His responsibilities include assessing, promoting and coordinating T&C’s commitment to the triple bottom line. He leads their environmental stewardship education and serves as a resource to all departments on sustainable purchasing. As a US Green Building Council LEED Green Associate, Tony continuously improves T&C’s resource management.  He is a board member of the Puget Sound Regional Food Policy Council. In fall 2012 he will be teaching in the Sustainable Food & Agriculture certificate program at Bainbridge Graduate Institute.

Maradel has had extensive experience with non-profit organizations. A retired University of Oregon professor, Maradel brings to her work 27 years of teaching and mentoring students in fields ranging from community and regional planning to law to cross-cultural communication. Maradel was a founder and the first President of the Oregon Environmental Council, and formed and directed the UO Micronesia and South Pacific Program, which placed graduate students in island communities to engage in skills transfer in conjunction with a project important to the requesting agency or organization. Upon retirement, Maradel moved to Bainbridge Island, where she has been active in a wide range of community projects. She is a member of the City of Bainbridge Island Planning Commission. She is also active with the Bainbridge Beach Naturalists.

Kat has lived on Bainbridge Island for 27 years.   After more than 25 years in the business world, working in multiple disciplines, Kat transitioned to the study and practice of whole systems design, organizational development and community building.  For the past 10 years, she has focused her energies on community organizing and political activism.  Kat worked at the 23rd District Democratic Bainbridge Headquarters for the 2004 election, and worked collaboratively on the Bainbridge Island Bill of Rights Defense Committee, the City’s Adopt-A-Road Program, multiple events for peace, regional Earth Charter Community Summits, and Bainbridge Island Earth Day events.  She hosts the regular Bainbridge Island Conversation Café, and recently, served as staff for the Community Housing Coalition, which developed recommendations for solutions to the local affordable housing crisis.  She currently works with David Korten, author of theGreat Turning:  From Empire to Earth Community, on outreach and communication for the national Great Turning Initiative.  Her passions include collaborative grassroots organizing for action, designing group experiences and bringing people together in meaningful conversation.

Scott James is an entrepreneur, instructor, advisor, and investor in the world of sustainability. BusinessWeek named Scott as one of “America’s Most Promising Social Entrepreneurs” in 2009 and Forbes profiled him as a "Game Changer" in 2010. The products from his most recent company (sold 2011) were featured in publications as diverse as Oprah’s O Magazine, National Geographic, Parents Magazine, the Washington Post, Outside Magazine, and US News & World Report. He is now working on CORA.

Lisa has a bachelors degree in wildlife biology and a Masters Degree in Marine Resource Management from the School of Marine Affairs at University of Washington.  Using her education has served her well in her position at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for the past 18 years where she works tirelessly on water issues.  She is also a divemaster and has been scuba diving for the EPA dive team for the last 14 years.  She has seen much of Puget Sound, including Bainbridge Island, from underwater; which fits with her passion for all things water related.  Her after work energy had been devoted to raising her daughter on Bainbridge Island, who has since amazed her mother by electing to attend the UW, of all places (where she is now a junior).  Lisa’s reserve energy is and has been devoted to Island community service. She was appointed by the mayor to serve as an Open Space Commissioner and has served on the Commission for the past 7 years, a Commission that has used public funds to acquire well over 250 acres on the Island as public open space.  Lisa also served on the City’s 2025 Growth Advisory Committee and on the Washington State Ferries Citizen Advisory Committee as a bicycling advocate/representative.  Lastly, Lisa launched the Coalition to Save Blakely Harbor, which was a grass roots effort which successfully activated the entire Island community to speak out and let the city know that the community wants continued protection of Blakely Harbor, one of the many “gems” of the Island.

Jon grew up on Bainbridge; his father, born in Port Madison (the son of early settlers from Sweden) brought his family home to the Island in 1945. Graduating from Bainbridge High in 1957, Jon went off to college in Portland and then to graduate school on the East Coast.  He taught English literature and other subjects in the Humanities at the university level (Freshman writing to Ph. D.-level seminars) for a full career, 1964-2000, but he never entirely lost touch with his roots and extended family on Bainbridge.  Living in Washington, D. C. for all those years and spending many summers on the Island alerted him to the importance of a sense of place and proved that you may run, but you can’t hide from politics.  While getting settled in an active retirement here, he turned his hand to writing about community affairs, local politics, and environmental issues.  Much of his reading nowadays deals with efforts to achieve sustainable local economies, and he will be contributing information and reflections to the Sustainable Bainbridge blog.

Marit Saltrones is a life-long social activist, currently focused on the resilience and sustainability of Island households as a founder of the Prepared Neighborhoods initiative. Her deep roots on the Island are reflected in the generations of her family buried at Port Blakely Cemetery. An entrepreneur, she has pioneered video-based distance learning, built and sold two small businesses, managed Northland Cable Television (during the beta tests of cable modem technology), served the Rotary Club of Bainbridge Island as President (2002 - 2003) and currently serves as PR Chair for the Rotary Auction. An award winning Executive Producer, she has managed the creation of hundreds of emergency response, emergency medicine, corporate communications and workplace safety training programs.  She holds a BA in Media Studies from The Evergreen State College.  As a VISTA volunteer she was trained as a community organizer in a direct lineage from the legendary Saul Alinsky.  She makes her home on an aging Bainbridge Island orchard, where she attempts to garden and write simple poetry. 

Leslie moved to Seattle in 1990 to start a marketing-communications consulting business, and soon thereafter discovered the concept of “sustainability.” The catalyst was an issue of a magazine published on Bainbridge Island called In Context (the predecessor to YES! Magazine). The theme was sustainability practices in Europe, such as car sharing and vertical gardens, which were mostly unknown in the US at the time. She read it cover to cover, had that ‘waking up’ moment, and found a class on sustainability at UW Extension. She went on to volunteer with Sustainable Seattle and the newly formed Northwest branch of BALLE (the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies). She was also a founding member of Jackson Place Cohousing near downtown Seattle where she lived for eight years until moving to Bainbridge Island to join her partner, Jason. Together, Leslie and Jason have started the first Kitsap ‘coworking’ business, OfficeXpats, in the Bainbridge Pavilion. They are now building and supporting a community of remote workers and independent professionals on the belief that people work better together than they do alone. She also continues as a marketing-communications consultant at Microsoft.

Barb Zimmer left Seattle after growing up in the area and studying community planning at the UW. She came to Bainbridge Island in 1990. Barb has planned and developed housing, energy, and education projects, and she has volunteered with numerous community programs dealing with thoughtful resource use, from watershed and Puget Sound protection, to energy and local food production, helping create opportunities for community members of all ages.